The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said an FIR registered against Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi for allegedly advocating the secession of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from the Union of India and calling for the use of violence against the country.

The FIR was registered on April 26 this year against Asiya and her associates, a senior NIA official said.

“The Central government has received information that one Asiya Andrabi and her associates namely Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen are actively running a terrorist organisation named as “Dukhtaran-E-Millat” (DEM) which is proscribed under the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. They are using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that endanger the integrity, security and sovereignty of India,” the NIA said.

The probe agency has alleged that DEM, through Asiya, “openly advocates the secession of J&K from the Union of India and has also called for Jihad and use of violence against India”.

Asiya, who is currently jailed in Srinagar, is the head of DEM. She is also the wife of jailed separatist leader Dr Qasim Faktoo. The DEM was named in an earlier NIA case in which LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahudin were charge-sheeted.

NIA spokesperson Alok Mittal said the case against Asiya is a separate one. “Asiya Andrabi and her associates have written and spoken words, besides publishing visible representations that bring in hatred and contempt apart from exciting disaffection towards the Government of India. DEM is promoting enmity, hatred and ill-will between different communities on the grounds of religion ...” NIA said. DEM already figured among the 39 banned terrorist organisation under section 35 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act but had been conducting its activities in the valley.

HT correspondent letters@hindustantimes.com

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 30 Jun 2018 Delhi